Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Much has been written at the RSA about 21st
century enlightenment and, in particular, on the power of networks as catalysts
for enlightenment. My interest is not in networks, it is in the power of mass
online discussion to generate powerful insight and to take people on the
journey towards enlightenment. By mass
online discussion I mean online discussion forums and the discussions which
follow blog, news articles and so on.

I became a fellow of the RSA because I was hoping to find
people who I could work with to rapidly come to express, share develop some of
the many insights I have. I’m interested
in taking on the most challenging academic articles but I couldn’t do this
alone because while I have the experience of the domain of mass online
discussion I do not have the depth of academic experience needed.

I’m interested in writing an engaging and easy to read book about
discussion forum culture full of anecdotes and tips on how survive and thrive
in forums. But I couldn’t do this
without help and inspiration due to my inexperience in writing, my geographical
isolation and the many other pressures on my time.

I’m also open to suggestions. I’d be particularly delighted
to be part of projects which explore issues such as how we can formally map the
emerging content of mass online discussions so that new joiners can rapidly
come to understand what’s already been said or how consultations through mass
online discussion can be structured and facilitated to generate maximum
insight.

Here’s a little of my background to help you gain some
insight into where I am and what I can already do:

By profession I’m a maths teacher who loves working in
challenging schools. This experience has
taught me many very relevant skills in coping with feisty forums! While my children are young I’m lecturing
part time in education and I was planning to research and write a PhD on maths
education. I got this far: http://mathseducationandallthat.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/scaling-in-multiplication-and-division.html
at which point I realised that it was not actually the content of my PhD which
I felt mattered most - instead it was the way in which the original insights it
depended on had been generated through mass online discussion. So I changed direction and decided to devote
my time and energy to the study of mass online discussion instead. Only it’s a subject area which doesn’t exist
which makes this rather difficult.

One of my first activities was to write this article with
Colin McAllister with whom I moderate a successful international maths and
maths education forum. Colin and I have
never met nor even spoken. We just
started writing together on Google shared docs as and when we had time.

Since then I’ve contributed to many forums and blog
communities, exploring their cultures and how they can be improved and experimenting
with different modes of interaction. My
cyberrhetoric blog gives only a small insight into the kinds of things I’ve
been doing and thinking: